City Council member deference halts "innovation" development in Astoria

 

QNS

The developers behind the $2 billion Innovation QNS project in Astoria will move quickly to meet the demands of Councilwoman Julie Won to shore up its community outreach and provide greater details on its proposal to build a massive development on a five-block area centered around Steinway Street near Northern Boulevard.

Won took a walking tour of the area last month with Council Land Use Committee Chairman Rafael Salamanca where Innovation QNS requires a zoning change to construct 18 buildings ranging from 9 to 27 stories with more than 2,800 apartments, with 25 percent of the units permanently affordable.

 “This project has been in the works since 2020 and claims to have done extensive outreach in the community,” Won wrote. “Community Board 1, local residents, and housing organizations have all expressed concerns about the lack of adequate community outreach, especially in Spanish and Bangla. The last two years, due to unforeseen circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has had limited in-person outreach to residents in the impacted area, many of whom are not fluent English language speakers. Thus far, the amount of community engagement is insufficient for a project of this scale that will deeply impact not only those in the immediate vicinity but also will have lasting impacts on the neighborhood as a whole.”

 Innovation QNS, a consortium of developers including Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and BedRock Real Estate Partners, will need Won’s approval as the project makes its way through the city’s arduous public review process which is expected to begin next month.

Won also demanded more detail be provided to Community Board 1 including environmental impact statement information and a full neighborhood impact study including a racial impact study.

25% "affordable units? They better do a lot better than that. How about 100% this time for once, so we don't have to use hotels for the housing deprived families and working class?

The mirage broker

NY Daily News 

A prominent Queens businessman and political donor is facing accusations that he and his wife lured hundreds of unwitting Chinese nationals into pouring a quarter-billion dollars into two development projects with the promise that their investments would help secure residency in the United States.

According to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yi “Richard” Xia and his wife Julia Yue persuaded more than 450 investors to shell out $229 million to fund the construction of two five-star hotels, one in Flushing and the other in Corona.

The Flushing development, which was dubbed the Eastern Mirage Project and supposed to be finished in 2013, remains incomplete, and according to the SEC complaint, is “an unfinished and empty glass tower.” The other development, the Eastern Emerald Project, is “a largely vacant dirt hole surrounded by a concrete wall.”

Xia’s solicitations for investments spanned from 2010 to 2017, the SEC contends.

According to its complaint, Xia, 52, and Yue, 41, pitched the hotel projects as a way for investors from China to obtain American residency through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ EB-5 program, which allows foreign nationals to qualify if they invest $500,000 or more in a project that creates or preserves jobs.

But, the SEC claims, the investors who made loans to project developers were being deceived.

Instead of their cash going where it was promised, money investors sent to the Mirage project was redirected to the Emerald development, and money intended for the Emerald project was sent to the Mirage job, the complaint claims.

“Defendants represented to investors that their $500,000 capital contributions would be used only for the construction and operation of that specific project. Instead, defendants repeatedly misappropriated money from one project and used it for another,” the complaint states. “Xia also misappropriated investor funds for personal and other improper expenses.”

To that end, the complaint claims that “at least $9.7 million in ill-gotten gains” were funneled into Yue’s personal bank accounts “for no legitimate business purpose.”

Xia also promised investors the projects would be financed through government bonds and bank loans, according to the complaint, which contends those assertions were false.

Xia and his wife did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

 Campaign finance records indicate that over the years Xia has donated generously to political causes, including contributions to Assemblyman Ron Kim, Councilman Peter Koo, state Sen. John Liu and a Democratic political action committee that wheeled thousands of dollars to former Rep. Joe Crowley.